The Zombies landed on U.S. soil in 1964 amid the wave of the British Invasion that started with The Beatles. And now, 50 years later, they’re performing to sold out shows in the country again, including one at the Narrows Center for the Arts on Aug. 6.

The group of musicians, who all knew each other as school mates in the London suburb St. Albans, won a local songwriting contest with their first song, “She’s Not There,” recorded on the Decca record label. Like The Beatles a couple years before them, The Zombies performed the chart-topping song to throngs of screaming girls. Their first performance in the United States was performing live on Murray the K’s Holiday Show in Brooklyn Christmas 1964, followed up in January 1965 as the premiere band on the debut of the NBC variety show “Hullabaloo.”

“It was exciting for us,” lead vocalist Colin Blunstone said in a phone interview last week. “As British artists we all wanted to go the United States — it was the home of rock and roll and here we were, 18 and 19 years old playing our songs in America. I can’t tell you how unexpected it all was.”

But there were inklings early on that the song would be a hit, he added. They recorded it in the spring of 1964 and on July 21, 1964 they performed it on the British music show “Jury Box,” before a panel of judges. “The week we did it George Harrison was on the panel and he liked it. I knew it meant we were going to have a hit if George Harrison liked it,” said Blunstone.

Known for their unique sound at the time, Blunstone attributed it to the keyboard-driven songs with three-part harmonies and their wide range of influences: classical music, modern jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll.

By the mid-1960s, the band’s two songwriters, Rod Argent (piano, keyboards, vocals) and Chris White (bassist) were becoming prolific, said Blunstone, and they recorded the album “Odessey and Oracle,” with the song that they would become most known for: “Time of the Season.” Recorded at Abby Road studios where The Beatles had just finished recording “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “ The Zombies picked up a few instruments the Fab Four left behind including percussion instruments and a mellotron organ that lended to the psychedelic sound on “Odessey and Oracle.” “We made full use of everything they left behind. It was a wonderful time to be a musician in London and in part that was because of Abbey Road,” said Blunstone of the recording studio.

By the time “Odessey and Oracle” was released in 1968, The Zombies had disbanded and moved on to other projects. The song “Time of the Season” became a hit after a disk jockey in Idaho played it continuously. To this day, Blunstone said they don’t know the name of the DJ who helped propel the song to No. 3 on the Billboard charts and No. 1 on the Cashbox charts in England. And though they had a hit single playing on the airwaves, they never considered bringing the group back together. “We were all committed to other projects,” said Blunstone, who went on to a solo career, and did studio work for various artists including The Alan Parsons Project. Argent and White formed the band Argent, known for the song, “Hold Your Head Up.”

Page 2 of 2 - Forty years later, the band’s principal performers reunited for a concert in 2004 and performed the songs live for the first time. “We had to learn some of them all over again,” recalled Blunstone.

He and Argent reunited again a few years back and have been touring as The Zombies across the globe selling out shows once again.

“Join a band and see the world,” said Blunstone of his musical career. “For the most part, I’ve traveled with friends and played the music I love. It’s been pretty good.”

And though there’s always the question of whether The Zombies would have attained the stardom of The Beatles or the Rolling Stones if they had reunited in 1968, Blunstone prefers not to dwell on the what ifs. “Where do these thoughts get you? In all, I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to have a 50 year career in the business. And the adventure goes on.”